01 September 2015

Recursion

Now open at LEA27 is Recursion by FreeWee Ling, a fascinating array of artworks centered around an interactive "Fibonacci Recursive Rezzer" that invites endless play and investigation. As FreeWee explains her her notes to the installations, "One of the most powerful creative techniques for any artist in any medium is recursion. In technical terms, recursion differs from repetition in that what recurs is similar to the original iteration, but may be altered in some systematic way...Creating large or complex objects in SL is made easy by the ability to duplicate, rotate, and/or resize objects. And such recursion is easily automated using rezzer scripts and building algorithmically."

The Fibonacci Recursive Rezzer generated both the patters of prims above (both shown in some detail to avoid depicting neighboring objects), and it was quite fascinating to watch it work — and I found it almost impossible to stop playing with the device, which presents the user with an almost limitless set of variables. The recursive patterns it generates reveal themselves through a variety of angles and perspectives.

Another interactive building device, Aperture, is nearby on the sim, allowing changes to a huge collection of prims rotating in space. And there's much more, with dozens of artworks, some scripted and some not, including the mesmerizing Giant Swirlygig (the bright green thing in the photo above, although it's not always green), a fanning ray particle emitter, giraffes on fire, and a Heavy Sliding Vault Door that reveals something within. They're all remarkable expressions of FreeWee's apparently endless imagination, and warrant repeated visits to fully enjoy.

Photos don't begin to convey the true feel of the sim, which is filled with movement in every direction. I would recommend using a high graphics setting to bring out the detail in materials such as shown below. (Click on any image to zoom in.) FreeWee will be in residence at LEA27 through December, and, if past installations are any indication, she'll be adding and transforming the space over time (indeed, one area is presently under construction).